Daniel Lurie (left) and Pat Gallagher, advocates of a Bay Area Super Bowl, check out the cavernous New Orleans Ernest Morial Convention Center.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Daniel Lurie (left) and Pat Gallagher, advocates of a Bay Area...

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Timothy Grayson jumps at the chance to try out the NFL Experience, one of the polished New Orleans attractions that make the city a repeat Super Bowl extravaganza.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Timothy Grayson jumps at the chance to try out the NFL Experience,...

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Ali Siles came all the way from Mexico City to see the Super Bowl and root on his 49ers. At the New Orleans Convention Center, a multi-block long showcase for the NFL this week, the NFL Experience attracts local fans and those planning to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Ali Siles came all the way from Mexico City to see the Super Bowl...

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At the NFL Experience, fans like 49er fan John Faulker got to see how his hands measured up to past Super Bowl quarterbacks, in this case Troy Aikman. At the New Orleans Convention Center, a multi-block long showcase for the NFL this week, the NFL Experience attracts local fans and those planning to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

At the NFL Experience, fans like 49er fan John Faulker got to see...

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A group of local students watched an interactive game where kids got to be running backs at the NFL Experience, an event which would travel with the Super Bowl should the Bay Area get the game. A group from San Francisco, Calif. got a tour of New Orleans convention center facilities Friday February 1, 2013 with an eye towards bringing the Super Bowl to the Bay Area in the future.

New Orleans -- If leaders of San Francisco's bid to host the Super Bowl in 2016 or 2017 laid the proper foundation, they could set the stage for not only bringing the game back to the Bay Area for the first time since 1985, but also something bigger.

The 2024 Olympics.

There's just one catch. The whole Bay Area - East Bay, South Bay and points in every direction from San Francisco - must collaborate. Frankly, that hasn't been our strong suit.

"The Super Bowl will be one of the first times ever that everyone in the Bay Area will work together," says Pat Gallagher, longtime local sports event organizer and member of the committee. "And the reason they will do it is because they have to."

Hosting a Super Bowl, and doing it successfully, puts a city in a whole new category.

Strategic schmoozing

With that in mind, the group trying to lure the Super Bowl back to the bay has rolled into New Orleans, schmoozing the NFL owners (who vote on the winning city), checking out the scene and getting a fix on what has to be done. The schmoozing went well; the scene is enjoyable; but when it comes to the needs for the week preceding the game, the response could be summed up in a single word.

Wow.

While New Orleans seems to toss off Super Bowls as if they were birthday parties, the logistics are daunting.

Nobody would say that Sunday's game is incidental, but the pregame run-up is a wonder to behold. There are multiple 5,000-guest, corporate, invitation-only parties each night. The New Orleans Host Committee threw a press party that took over an entire wharf, featured more than 40 local restaurants, had six stages for musical acts, offered a ride on a paddle-wheel riverboat and hosted a crowd estimated at 7,000.

Then there is the NFL Experience, an 850,000-square-foot, weeklong fan zone. Tickets go for $25, and the attraction draws more than 100,000 for the week. That's in addition to the free concerts, elaborate outdoor TV sets for the likes of ESPN, CBS, and others. All that, and more, is expected of every host city.

"Basically, you are creating the NFL theme park," said Gallagher.

New Orleans has staged this extravaganza 10 times, tied with Miami, and is already preparing a bid for the 2018 game. It also hosted the Sugar Bowl this year, the Final Four last year, and are likely to get the NBA All-Star Game.

"It may look easy, but it is a lot of work," says Bob Johnson, president of the New Orleans Convention Center. "But hospitality is what we do. People love that everything is so close, so walkable. They love the culture and the food."

A long walk

We've got the culture and the food, but walkability may be a problem. If the Bay Area gets the bid, many of the parties and fan fests will be in San Francisco, but the football will be played an hour away in the new Santa Clara stadium.

That's not a deal-killer. Next year's game will be in both New York and New Jersey. Even Miami's Super Bowls unfold from Fort Lauderdale to Miami Beach to the stadium in the suburb of Miami Gardens.

The larger issue is whether this is a Bay Area kind of event and whether the region will work together. There are groups in New Orleans that grumble about the way the NFL parachutes into town and takes over. Good luck if you were planning a stroll through Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter this week. It is now an ESPN studio.

Can you imagine how famously fractious San Franciscans might react if that happened to Union Square? And then there is the concern that Santa Clarans might feel slighted, since they're spending the millions to build a new stadium.

All will be well, the committee members say. Committee bid leader Daniel Lurie, who is also the founder and CEO of the philanthropic organization Tipping Point, says the media sessions with the players will be in Santa Clara, fan events will be included, and San Jose State and Stanford will provide facilities. As for the San Francisco sensibility, Lurie stresses that a percentage of the profits will be used to fund worthy nonprofits.

Leaving a legacy

The group is convinced that the entire Bay Area will see the big picture.

"Over the last four or five years, San Francisco has begun to realize how important tourism is," says Gallagher. "We've seen what it has done to other cities - the impact is in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

And Gallagher says that doesn't include the intangible value of the national exposure of one of the most watched television events in the country.

"We're trying to leave a legacy after the circus has left town," he says.

Oh, there will be a legacy, all right. This might change everything - for years and years to come.